Everybody's Talking At Once

ETAO Podcast, Episode 63. Melos Han-Tani and Marina Kittaka worked together on the original Anodyne, its under-appreciated follow-up Even the Ocean, and now their latest Analgesic Productions joint, Anodyne 2: Return to Dust. It’s a game about getting to know the world in its infinite strangeness, acquiring and shedding preconceptions, and meeting new people who … Continue reading "Welcoming Surrealism, with Melos Han-Tani and Marina Kittaka"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 62. Alan Dang emerges from the shadows to talk about his work on the Skullgirls mobile game, the VR garden-’em-up Fujii, and the indie arcade esport stalwart Killer Queen. Plus, we talk about the broader possibilities for virtual reality, the criminally ignored potential of games for education, and the fact that a … Continue reading "A Consigliere’s Life for Me, with Alan Dang"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 61. Bryant Cannon joins us to discuss Oxenfree, its follow-up Afterparty, and the licensed, now-delisted Night School games that came in between—not to mention his previous mobile work, much of it also now delisted. As such, we talk about the melancholy weirdness of games being delisted, and more broadly, of games being … Continue reading "Better Ways to Build Better Stories, with Bryant Cannon"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 60. Juan Vaca chooses to adventure with us—into his work at Telltale Games, at Endless Entertainment, and now at the burgeoning interactive team at Netflix. We talk about Juan’s approach to narrative, the oft-ignored importance of theme, and his longstanding interest in using existing characters and worlds to tell original stories. We … Continue reading "Choices and Games and Stories, with Juan Vaca"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 59. Greg Batha has done a remarkable variety of creative/technical work, from the interface of Dream Daddy, to live visualizations for touring musicians, to the hectic and adorable puzzle battler bit bit blocks. What brings it all together, he explains in this wide-ranging interview, is the desire to do things in a … Continue reading "The Art of Design(ing Art), with Greg Batha"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 58. Jim Guthrie joins us to reflect on his storied soundtracking career, from Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP and BELOW, to Indie Game: The Movie, to (implicitly, here) Reigns: Her Majesty and Planet Coaster—not to mention his auspicious and only-semi-separate indie rock career, the joys and sorrows of playing live, and Bandcamp’s … Continue reading "Now Game Music Is Just Music, with Jim Guthrie"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 57. Zach Chandler catches the bus with us and talks about Nth Dimension[al] Hiking, his gently arcane spectral traverse-’em-up. We discuss Zach’s guiding principle, namely that if you’re going to make a game that isn’t obvious, then you’d better be sure that it’s nonetheless truthful. That’s easier said than done, of course, … Continue reading "Weird Mad Stuff, with Zachariah Chandler"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 56. Jordan Thomas hides out with us to talk about The Blackout Club. It’s a game that is at once an “infinite meaning machine” and an authored narrative, a game about “extremely rewarding movement” but not “physical combat with a clear victor,” an early access experience that shares much of the appeal … Continue reading "Something Bigger Than We Are, with Jordan Thomas"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 55. Jay Tholen remembers the internet of the ’90s, when things were a few shades dorkier, and whole lot less smoothed-over and centrally managed—and especially the internet of the late 90s, when an end-of-days urgency and paranoia hung over all of that. Hypnospace Outlaw is in some ways his attempt to capture … Continue reading "This Living Online Thing, with Jay Tholen"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 54. Brian Fairbanks’ game Lost and Hound brings together a whole lot of his passions—from meaningful soundscapes, to accessibility, to dogs. In this episode, we start by talking about Host and Hound and end up talking about mainstream games that are (often, accidentally) accessible, audiogames that are build from the ground up … Continue reading "Accessibility and Joy (also Dogs), with Brian Fairbanks"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 53. In lieu of a guest this week, we humbly present a conversation that Drew and Lucio recorded just before GDC, all about what it means to play a game wrong—from misunderstanding mechanics, to knowingly ignoring objectives and incentives, to adding one’s own layer of rules for tournament play or speedruning. Playing … Continue reading "How to Play Games Wrong"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 52. Evan Hill drops in to talk a little about Solar Ash Kingdom and Torment: Tides of Numenera, and a whole lot about his current work at Naughty Dog—though don’t expect any new details on The Last of Us Part II itself. Evan keeps that close, and fair enough. What he does … Continue reading "What Level Designers Design, with Evan Hill"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 51. C. Andrew Rohrmann (also known as scntfc, previously known as Scientific American, and alternately known by some pseudonyms that we’re not at liberty to disclose) stops by to talk about reactive soundtracks, “the mutability of music,” his notion of “anonymous ubiquity,” and his work on games like Oxenfree, Afterparty, Old Man’s … Continue reading "The Thing Is the Thing It Is, with C. Andrew Rohrmann (a.k.a. scntfc)"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 50. Robin Baumgarten’s work doesn’t fit neatly into any single category or tradition. He makes games that are also toys, and also art installations, and also unusually beguiling lamps, and also—most straightforward to experience, most difficult to describe—simply objects that make the world a little stranger a little more beautiful whenever and … Continue reading "A Quantum of Wobble, with Robin Baumgarten"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 49. Philip Buchanan went indie so that he could finish 39 Days to Mars, a consummately silly co-op-as-comedy physics-and-gadgets puzzle-’em-up rendered in florid trichromatic line drawings and bone-dry Britishisms. The result is as delightful as any cuppa could hope to be be. In this episode, Philip stops by to talk about the … Continue reading "There Is Co-Op on Mars, with Philip Buchanan"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 48. Rami Ismail wants everyone to be able to make games. “Literally anybody anywhere” should be able to work in this medium that has the potential to transcend not only cultural and national boundaries, but language. The work of including everyone is, of course, not trivial—but Rami is attempting to do the … Continue reading "Literally Anybody Anywhere, with Rami Ismail"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 47. Gabby DaRienzo stops by to talk about her work as one half of the core Laundry Bear Games team, from A Mortician’s Tale (and Tracktoons) to their still-in-its-early-days next project—as well as her excellent, now-concluded podcast Play Dead, and her extensive and varied freelance work on Celeste, Parkitect, Graceful Explosion Machine, … Continue reading "Food, Death, and Everything Else Worth Talking About, with Gabby DaRienzo"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 46. Greg Kasavin descends and/or ascends to our realm to talk about Hades, Supergiant’s roguelike recently surprise-released into Early Access on Epic Games’ brand new storefront. We talk about how Hades both builds on and departs from Supergiant’s previous games (Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre), and then we talk a great deal about … Continue reading "One Hell of a Not-Hell, with Greg Kasavin"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 45. As 2018 winds down, esteemed ETAO Podcast producer Frances Michelle Lopez sits down to talk about what we played in 2018, what we’re looking forward to playing in 2019, and what’s currently sitting in our to-read piles. We couldn’t get to everything, during this conversation or throughout this year. We never … Continue reading "What We Played and ‘Casted (and What We Didn’t) in 2018"

ETAO Podcast, Episode 44. Heather Flowers talks EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER: Powered by Blood (and the MEATPUNKS material beyond). We talk about body horror, episodic storytelling and serialization, the anger and clarity of punk, the multiplicity and illegibility of punk, and the process of creating EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER on a schedule that’s more MODERATE MEATPUNKS SOME … Continue reading "The Perfidy of THE SUN, with Heather Flowers"